Bangalore Times ( The Epilogue )

Wondering why this title? why the abrupt epilogue. well after we hopped back into the car and came back home that was more or less the last time we all were together. yes next day we did go to the wedding but i guess you will find a much detailed version of it in Aakarsh's blog(http://kamal-aakarsh.blogspot.com). Then i had to meet a lot of friends and family and i had to stay over at my brother's place. we met on sunday when we were supposed to get going and i had to hurriedly pack my bags and head for the station. it was only me, aakarsh and govind and we whiled away our time on the train with a lot of gossip and unintellectual bullcrap.
The escapade came to an end very abruptly but it was a time well spent. Daily struggle has begun in hyderabad and i can only look back at those memorable days and smile.

More such vacations needed..wondering when sanjay will get married ;)

Bangalore Times - III

3rd of August, 1800 hrs

Location: The Guest House

Supposedly all the 8 members were to meet at this hour but looks like its only three of us. Freshened up, had our smokes, had a small something to keep us going till the reception but still nobody showing up. Have no balance in cell phones so cannot even call and co-ordinate. So took up the respective books that we bought and started reading. Destination was Jayanagar which about fifteen kilometers fr0m the place we have put up (Benson Town...No not named after George Benson though it has a lovely romantic atmosphere). It should take us and hour and half to cover that distance because Bangalore traffic is legendary and everyone is well aware of that but still no signs of anyone. Our hunger is getting the better of us when one by one they started dropping by... We had to adhere to a formal dress code so we, the guys stuck to the typical finance professional attire(I begged to differ with a party tie) whereas the girls decided to wear sarees. Now what is wrong with Indian girls...on the drop of the hat they wear sarees...Now formal can be a simple salwar suit too but I guess every girl likes to dress up. Whatever!
Finally after 2 more hours of ordeal we were finally go to go at around 8:15 p.m. Holy Cow!!! But thankfully the signals were all green as I think Bangalore was all geared up for our invasion and wanted to cause as little trouble as possible. So it took us around half n hour to reach and finally we saw a brilliantly lit up place signaling the end of our journey!!
Marriage was in the air...definitely. Our friend was all decked up in suit and stuff. Looked very dashing and beaming with happiness as if he was the one getting married. Oh BTW, forgot to mention that we are so irresponsible and mindless that we even forgot that you need to gift the bride and the groom something! we just landed empty handed. Not even with a bouquet! Yeah...That’s us!
Nonetheless we have this indomitable spirit so we nonchalantly went inside and shook hands with the bride/groom and congratulated them and after a while headed straight to the dinner table to check out the menu( yeah men will be men :D)...that is where it happened!! That is exactly the place where it happened...one of the three musketeers got floored. By floored I mean finished. Have to quote Mario Puzo...Hit by a thunderbolt!!
Personally I despise the color pink but if anything has ever looked beautiful in a pink dress, it is that lady. Out of the world beauty. My words are not good enough to describe her. My friend’s expressions were somewhat close to it! My friend is by the way a non believer in relations and romantic liaisons but this time, struck by a "thunderbolt" we thought he would change his opinion. He could hardly take his eye of the lady till we came to know she is the cousin sister of the guy getting married so in turn the cousin sister of the guy's brother( that’s our friend and host for the night).
So while this episode was going on I felt really hungry and remotely suggested the concept of having dinner. Surprisingly everyone felt the same and we jumped onto a long list of delicacies. After a sumptuous meal we went out to the reception hall and sat there while a live performance was going on. Hindustani Classical gave way to some very melodious all time favorite Hindi and Telegu movie numbers and we were really enjoying our time. Our friend (the godfather guy) was enjoying it exponentially I believe because he is a musical exponent and was exposed to, and I quote, an "ethereal baeauty".yeah she was sitting right in front of us. Graceful as ever!!

More rambling later...

Bangalore Times - II

And with that promissory note (actually with the promise and on a happy note...but I felt appropriate by using an inappropriate finance jargon) our friend left for his place. Now it was eight of us and it seemed most of them had different directions to head... How appropriate ;)
One bathroom was a hindrance alright but it seemed the girls were headed somewhere and a few of the guys were tagging along leaving three of us to wonder what hit us!! I mean come-on...We had been to the place for barely an hour and already people were dispersing. Well we calmed ourselves down. Located the smoke and the wine shops first (very important but futile effort. shall be revealed gradually) and then decided that we should also take off. That will give the guys off the block first a chance to get ready quickly and also one of the three musketeers (that’s us) is a Bangalore native (kinda...really looooooooong story) which basically means he has a roof on his head in the city. Therefore we took the car and left for that place and also tagged with us a couple of friends as one of them is also a Bangalore native. He was going off to meet his parents and was on route to Malleshwaram (where we were heading). Therefore we also went to his place...met his parents, did all the formalities and then in a hour came out and headed for normality. Reached Malleshwaram, took bath and then set off for the unknown pastures.

Oh ho...Forgot to mention! Last night in train we hardly ate anything so we were ravenous hence started (frantically) looking for a place to eat. then my friend a.k.a. the localite( hereby referred to as the localite throughout he tenure of this gibberish) suddenly located a place and with a loud screech the car was halted. Supposedly the best "Butter Masala Dosa" serving place in the town was open. Trust me. It is not exaggerated AT ALL. Now that is called a Masala Dosa man!! Awesome... we had two each and then felt on top of the world and then headed towards the most talked about place in town (which we still think is highly over rated)... The Brigade Road-M.G. Road crossing (ever noticed that every Indian city has a M.G. Road? Calcutta has 3!!!).
But we had other things in mind. we left the glam and glitz of the branded giants like KFCs, Reeboks, Adidas' etc and took a small narrow shabby lane that lead us to a tiny book shop called The Select Book House which proudly housed the caption,--"Where like-minded people meet!".
Quite a statement eh? We also thought so till we entered the tiny place. It’s not a book shop! It’s a man's own personal collection...God knows why he sells them and that too at a price which even Tom Hanks in U'Ve Got Mail couldn't think of!
To kinda test this man's collection I asked him whether he had a proscribed book which I have searched all over but to no avail... and bang! This guy took it out from a drawer below his table. Man I was about to jump and buy it when this guy says it has already been booked by someone else...how mean! But whatever. It’s a Salman Rushdie for Christ's sake!!! How did he get was a question I really wanted to ask but refrained from it as I liked the place already. So went in deep into his 7000 odd book collection and after lot dilemma whether to buy the entire book store or not, I finally bough two classics:
1) Man eaters of kumaon by Major Jim Corbett and
2) To kill a mocking bird by Nelle Harper Lee

Felt very content because mind you…none of these books are less than 30 years old... worth paying the fifty bucks it costed me.

When everyone was done with their shopping we headed back towards the guest house as the time to co-ordinate, meet and go over to the reception was nearing.

Stay tuned folks...

Bangalore Times - I

When i finally fell aslep after a lot of deliberation, i don't think i was too unhappy about it especially when the Beach,the Babe and her Bikini was beckoning me in the dream..it was so vivid and realistic that i almost..well...another story another time.So there i was happily in sync with the train's cradle-ish rocking and sleeping happily when this sudden surge of chilly wind shook my core and i jumped up on the upper bunk to find the babes slowly blending with the fast vanishing darkness of the night. I was shivering and Bangalore was nearing.

Looked around to find my friends cuddling up like little puppies and trying to strike up a mutual between their sleep and the cold...i envied them and then decided to mare the fun...i am the seventh son of a seventh son after all..he he he...

So i jumped off the bunk, and the rest is history..we were fast approaching our destination..the city of pubs..Bangalore and had to get ready and good to go in fifteen minutes. my tortures didnot last long and much to my dismay they got up!! silly blokes! British!!!

Finally the train halted... we offloaded ourselves and waited for the angelic(if i can use that for a guy) friend who had arranged for a car for us throughout our stay in that city...what a wonderful gesture(God bless you Strongy). okay i know its confusing so a background check.. its my friend brother's wedding in bangalore and they were kind enough not only to invite us but actually to have someone escort us around the city with a car at our disposal. we guys were ecstatic. man! seldom have people been so kind to me..again, another of my legendary friend's mom pulled some strings and we got a guest house(which was and still probably is--not sure what the condition is after we left--a fantastic place to chill out) for something like ten bucks per day per room...that is rocking!!

so where were we?yeah waiting for the friend to come. He, despite having a busy schedule drove all the way to the station to receive us( man this guy is amazing...but i also have a feeling he wanted to slyly sneak out of his place and have a smoke with us which is next to impossible at his place but nonetheless he came so all forgiven..lol) and then helped us get settled in the guest house.
He took our leave and went off with our promise that yes we shall come to the reception party in the evening.